topic Re: Disable GPS location in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Disable GPS location

NicolasRoger — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 16:41:54 GMT

Hi,

My users have reported that the Survey123 app keep showing the following error message when they try to complete a survey with no GPS signal on their Android devices:

Basicly, what it says in english is : "No position received"

The actual position of the user is not important for our Survey (The user select a location ID). So is there anyway to prevent Survey123 from trying to find the device position?

Will autopopulating the geometry field keep the app from searching for a location?

Thank you for your help.

EDIT: I can confirm the same behavior appear on Survey123 version 3.1.113 on Windows 7. The message appear everywhere in the app. I now see that I can disable it in the App parameters.

Still, is there anyway to disable it completly? I would prefer not to collect personal information about the location of my users when they send me data.

Re: Disable GPS location

JohnathanHasthorpe — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 05:09:46 GMT

Hi Nicolas

The Survey123 field app will always include a location in a submitted survey, even if the form does not contain a geopoint question. This is because the data is stored in a feature service, and each collected feature must have a geometry. If the user does not want to share their location then they just need to disable the device location sensor - this will result in a null geometry being collected.

Cheers

John

Re: Disable GPS location

Nicole_Ueberschär — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 12:46:00 GMT

If I turn off the location sensor I still get this annoying message. It seems like it keeps reminding me until I have defined/confirmed the geopoint.

Re: Disable GPS location

BrandonArmstrong — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 18:04:54 GMT

Hi Nicole,

You can configure the display of these messages in the 'Alerts' options of the particular location provider settings. By default, the app will display messages and use text to speech announcements to inform you. See here for more details...

Edited: Quick reference—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS

Re: Disable GPS location

JohnathanHasthorpe — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 21:45:23 GMT

Quick reference—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS

Re: Disable GPS location

Anonymous User — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 17:48:25 GMT

The Alert settings do not appear to help the issue. I have all of the alerts turned off, but when you launch the Survey123 field app (testing on Windows 10, app 3.6.153), it still throws an error. Perhaps it controls the alerts while inside a geopoint question in a survey, but the error still comes up on application launch, before opening any surveys.

Is there any way to disable this completely? Due to the presence of this idea, I'm guessing it is not possible at this time?

Re: Disable GPS location

JamesTedrick — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 21:08:37 GMT

Hi Shannon,

The error message you are showing is a system error (that concerns location), not a location error (which is affected by the settings mentioned above). The ability to disable that message is being evaluated; for reference, it has been filed as ENH-000124021.

Re: Disable GPS location

Anonymous User — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 17:40:13 GMT

Thanks James!

Re: Disable GPS location

ryanEvanczyk — Wed, 26 May 2021 19:01:16 GMT

Any update to this issue? Now the error is "location inaccessible" whenever I start the S123 field app. None of the machines we use need to collect a gps location. Locations are set on a map or not at all.

Thanks!

Re: Disable GPS location

EricCaldwellAK — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 17:18:58 GMT

I agree with Ryan. We have office staff entering survey data with no XY data from their desktops getting this error every time they open the desktop app and we have to tell them "Just ignore that. It's an Esri thing." I'd much rather have a way to shut off this irrelevant pop-up.

Re: Disable GPS location

Anne-MarieDubois — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 14:41:45 GMT

Same here, I need to disable gps position for office workers. They must use the map to pinpoint the exact location and forbid the use of their actual location (to avoid mistakes).

Re: Disable GPS location

IsmaelChivite — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 18:29:24 GMT

I suggest you add a geopoint question to your survey and set the default column to null. If you do not want to display a map in your survey, also set the appearance to hidden. I hope that helps.

Re: Disable GPS location

Anne-MarieDubois — Thu, 05 May 2022 19:35:58 GMT

Unfortunately, I still need them to see the map to pin the needed location. I just don't want them to be able to use their actual location (GPS option) by mistake.

Re: Disable GPS location

Shubhreet — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 00:57:32 GMT

I face the same problem as @Anne-MarieDubois . I do not want to collect any current location through the survey instead I have build my survey to retrieve static location from a linked .csv file using pulldata() function. The static is to be shown on the web map. Even when I disable the survey 123 field app to use location or disable the Alerts from the app, I still get 'Location inaccessible' pop-up which is annoying.

was anyone able to get any update on this?